Separator for seed-cotton.



.1. n. YELLENBURG.

SEPARATOR FOR SEED COTTON. APPLICATION FILED APR. 22, 1915.

' Patented Feb. 20,1917.

3 SHEETS-SHEET l WW/V555:

. J. N. ELLENBURG.

S EPARATOR FOR SEED COTTON.

APfLlCATION FILED APR. 22. 1915.

1,216,673. Patented Feb. 20,1917.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

lNVE/VTUR MM By 4 ATTORNEY I 7 APPLICATION FILED APR- 22' 1915. 1,216,673.

Patented Feb. 20,1917.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

JJVEZZK/M Z, I

UNITED STATES PATENT oF rcE. .v

JOE N. ELLENBURG,'OF MCKINNEY, TEXAS, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-FIFTH TO JOE DULANEY, ONE-FIFTH '10 JIM THOMPSON, ONE-FIFTH T GEORGE THOMPSON,

AND ONE-FIFTH T0 WILLIAM T. HARTMAN, ALL OF MCKINNEY, TEXAS.

SEPARATOR FOB SEED-COTTON.

Specification of Letters Patent. I Patented Feb. 20, 1917.

Application filed April 22, 1915. Serial No. 23,013.

L To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I,,JOE N. ELLENBURG, a citizen of the United States, residing at McKinney, in the county of Collin and State of Texas, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Separators for Seed- Cotton, of which the following is a specification.

My invention has relation to a machine for separating seed cotton from hulls and extraneous dirt prior to its presentation to the gins and in such connection 1t relates more particularly to a hulling mechanism comprising essentially a saw cylinder cooperating with huller ribs, a picker roll and a lint removing brush, in the separation of the seed cotton from the hulls, stems and extraneous dirt.

Heretofore in the preparation of cotton for the ginning operation, the cotton bolls were, when necessary, first passed through a boll breaker and thereafter through a cleaner and thence to a gin. Where the cot.

ton was of a hully naturethe gin'was of a construction known as a huller gin. In such a gin the cotton was fed througha picker roll mechanism before entering the roll box of the gin. Y I 7 By my present invention there is provided a hullingmechanism designed to act upon the cotton prior to its passage through the cleaner and when a boll breaker is necessary,

immediately after the cotton has been passed through said boll breaker and before it is passed through the cleaner. And by my present invention there is provided a novel hulling mechanism comprising a saw cylinder, huller ribs and a picker roll cotiperating with a revolving brush designed to operate upon the saws'to remove the lint and seed after the cotton has been subjected to the saws, ribs and picker roll cooperating to remove the hulls. Again by my present invention there is provided a series of hulling mechanisms each consisting of a saw cylinder, huller ribs and picker roll cooperating with a lint removing brush, the mechanisms being in superposed relationship with the huller mechanisms discharging to a common channel or passage way and the brushes discharging to a common lint flue or passageway leading to and discharging in the cleaning mechanism.

In one aspect of my invention the loca- -picker rolls.

tion of the hulling mechanism in the chain of mechanisms leading up to the gin is broadly new and constitutes one feature of my device. a In another aspect of my present invention the'use of a saw cylinder in conjunction with picker roll and huller ribs 00-, operating to form a hulling mechanism is also broadly new and in a third aspect of the invention the use ofsuperposed hulling mechanisms whereby the bully cotton is subjected to a continuous series or chain of hulling operations prior to the discharge of the hulls and prior to the entrance of the separated cotton into the cleaner is likewise broadly new.

The nature and scope of my invention will be more fully understood from the folcleaner, the section being taken on line 4- 2 of Fig.

Fig.- 4, is a perspective view of one of the boll breaker rolls of the machine.

Fig. 5, is a perspective viewof one of the feeder rolls, and

Fig. 6, is a perspective view-of oneof the Referring to the drawings ,1 1 are the feeder rolls revolving in the upper end of a hopper 2. Below these rolls 1 are arranged the two boll breaker'rolls 3 and 4. These boll breaker rolls revolve to force the belly cotton through the hopper, the roll 4 revolving at a higher speed than its coiiperating roll 3. By reason of this diflerence in speed of rotation the cotton bolls are subjected to a combined crushing and elongating or stretchin during" their passage through the boll brea er.

The hopper 2 terminates at its base in a vertically extending passage way divided by alternate solid and screen'seetioned partition into two channels 5 and 6, at the base of which a conveyer screw 7 rotates to convey the hulls and trash from the machine. The

" in superposed relationship within a common channel-5 receives loose dirt or motes passing through the curved screen section 8 during as hereinafter more particularly described.

The curved screens 8 each coiiperate as a breast with a saw cylinder 9,"huller ribs 10 and a picker roll 11. The saws of the saw cylinders 9 are relatively widely spaced apart and have on their. periphery teeth relatively coarser than the teeth of the ordinary gin' saw. The ribs 10 correspond in general shape and contour to the ordinary huller ribs of a gin but are larger and more widely spaced than aresaid ginning or seeding ribs. It fpllows that when the bully cotton comes in contact with the periphery of a saw cylinder 9 the lint and seed are drawn between the. ribs 1 9 but all or a considerable portion of the hulls are separated by the ribs 10. The coaction'of ribs 10 and cylinder 9 is accelerated by the picker rolls 11 which constantly revolve the hulls and hully cotton and present the hully cotton to the underneath portion of the saws. At the rear of the periphery'of each saw cylinder 9 is arranged a revolving brush cylinder 12 the brushes of which are designed to remove the seed cotton and lint from the periphery of the saws after the cotton and lint has been drawn between ribs 10. Each of the brush cylinders 12 deposits the seed cotton upon a platform or floor 13 discharging into 'a vertical flue or chamber 14. The base of this flue or chamber 14; o ens into the top of the casing 15 of a cleaning machine. 7

In the preferredform of structure there are a plurality of separating mechanismS casing 15. In this form, after the cotton is partly hulled and separated in the first mechanism in series, the hulls are passed downward to the second mechanism in series and the hulling and separatingoperations are continued by the coacting breast, saw cylinder, ribs and picker roll of said second mechanism. The hulls and hully cotton escaping from the second mechanism are treated in the third mechanism and so on until the hulls, freed from'the cotton, are

deposited in the trough inwhich the trash conveyer 7 rotates.

amaze At the opposite end of the'machine, each brush cylinder 12 removes the seed cotton and lint from its coiiperating saw cylinder 9 and discharges the same into one common flue 14:. p v v The cotton from flue 14 passes through casing 15' into the interior of the cleaner.

This interior is in the form of a screened cal and Wholly unassisted by suction or air pressure, to the outlet 19 from the cleaner. Having thus described'the nature and ob jects of my invention what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is,-

1. In a machine of the character described, a plurality of superposed hulling mechanisms, a continuous passageway divided into two channels whereof one conducts the hully cotton to successive hulling mechanisms and whereof the other receives the loose dirt from the cotton, the partition dividing said passageway comprising alternate solid and screen sections, and a plurality of picker rolls arranged in the chan- 1 i nel for the cotton and adjacent to a screen section of said partition.

2. In a machine of the character described, a plurality of superposed hulling mechanisms, a continuous passa eway divided into two channels whereo one conducts the hully cotton to successive hulling mechanisms and whereof the other receives the loose dirt from the cotton, the partition dividing said passageway comprising alternate solid and screen sections, and a plurality of picker rolls arranged in the channel for the cotton and each adjacent to a screen section of said partition in combination with a flue common to all the huller mechanisms and arranged to receive the cotton discharged from said huller 'mecha-.

G. G. WALonor.

Mill 

